…at which point he had his 12-month shots. This was one of the last times I held him asleep, since he was fully weaned a few weeks later.

Same day, at Targ

A little more dignified

Finally able to spend some time outside in mid-April

I put up some pictures in David’s room. Since then, I’ve added more of his cousins to the wall and also placed a taller dresser in front of it. I should probably move them! He used to enjoy pointing out his grandparents.

I put up his quilt from Cousin Helen by the changing table and he constantly points out the stars and circles on it while he is a prisoner there.

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I made my little David a dinosaur hoodie just in time for last Halloween. He is still wearing it, so I decided to post this blog I drafted several months ago.

It is so cold here by Oct. 31st and he was not old enough to trick-or-treat or eat candy so I thought this seemed like a perfect half-costume compromise for running an errand or handing out some candy.

When you are sewing for babies, you can do a n y t h i n g. This mentality speeds things along.

Step One
Decide what you want your spike to look like and then figure out the placement and spacing. Our spike is three inches wide and tall. I don’t like them looking puny and if they are too big they will flop over, which on a stegosaurus would mean broken plates, which is kind of gross.

Step Two
Sit next to your sewing machine to set the mood. Cut out the cardboard template, and label it so you will recognize it later.

Other good Step Ones would be:
Put the baby to bed.

or
Get felt (like 1/3 yard) and a hoodie. I was going to use a sweatshirt he already owned, but he had pretty much grown out of them and I wanted him to wear it for a few months at least.

Next
Place your spike template on a folded piece of felt and cut out a bunch of diamond shapes that will later fold into spikes. I needed four for the hood, which I did first.

Calm down, sun. The natural light makes the felt look like molten lava. Do not be afraid to touch it.

The hood has a seam down the center of it, which was nice for finding the center but annoying for sewing along. I did not use the machine here for this reason. I pinned the open spikes along the center and stitched through the middle, on the crease where they were folded. Make sure the Sharpie marks are face up now, and make any sewing knots or ugliness happen here as well, so when you fold it shut it will look good.

I don’t know why I’m turning this into a tutorial…how many of you are going to sit down and make one? You can make one for teenagers or adults, if you don’t have a baby.

After sewing down the center of the diamonds with thread that is close in color to the hoodie, close the spikes and sew them shut. I switched to red thread for this step, and used a simple overcast stitch which is like the idiot brother of the blanket stitch. I think the escalloped effect this creates adds to the cuteness. Felt does not require hemming. I barely had enough red thread but I was afraid to use another color.

Since the baby did not sleep very long, have him model it at this point.

It will look so cute and comical that you will be inspired to keep going (some other naptime).

Locate the center of the back of the hoodie and sew the other spikes down the spine. This part only took three spikes while the hood took four, because babies’ heads are very big on their bodies. Sew them closed, using embroidery floss. I have a ton of red embroidery floss! I enjoyed that part so I did it by hand.

I have several pictures of them playing like this, all horrible image quality. The lighting was weird, bad time of day, cute anyway.

On the count of three, make the same face.

At lunch with the grandparents. There were crowns because BK was celebrating the opening of its new “toddler play area.”

We went shopping after lunch, and David got to ride in the fun cart for the first time. I mean got to drive…

He also got some red Converse for his birthday from my mom and dad.

Too cool for school

Are you still cool if your grandma has to turn your foot for you so you don’t fall?

What do you think?

A few more poses…he takes his modeling seriously. That gig back in September may have gone to his head.

Mom making a funny face, and some cute legs

You can bet he was being extremely loud.

Oh, Tom-Tom.

This is the face of a boy about to do something daring.

He cracks me up! What a monkey pose!

Leftover party decs

This is what it would look like if Josh and I had a kid together.

He loves cords, plugs and outlets. It can be frustrating for the adults in his life.

Guess who sent him this shirt :)

The next pictures are oozing sweetness, so brace yourself.

Looking for the right toy

I hope he will continue to show an interest in piano. It would be fun to teach him some songs when he’s a bit older.

Today we drove to Fargo to have lunch and walk around the mall before stopping at Harbor Freight for Josh to buy a bunch of tools. The only pictures I took were in the car. Lame! Not that much happened, but we had a nice day. It was about an hour and a half drive each way, and the weather was amaaaaazing. I was almost too warm in long sleeves without a jacket. And I was wearing ballet flats instead of boots!

I forgot about Dave’s sunglasses because I stuck them in the little sunglasses compartment in my car one time and I don’t ever open it because I don’t wear sunglasses in the car. So Josh found them today and David played with them for hours. He likes to have them put on, although he takes them off pretty fast.

In the spirit of the season, I bought another hydrangea. Better luck this time.

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We were busy. Also, we had guests staying in my computer room, so blame them for my silent blog, please. :)

Get out of the way, Tom!

David turned one on the 24th, and we celebrated his hugeness, how he can do everything himself, how he is too big for his swaddle blankets and all his cutest outfits. At no point did he succumb to sudden infant death, choke on solid food or sacrifice his extremities to the elements, and he breast fed for a year. I call that a success!

In retrospect, that might be how the giraffe’s neck was broken. It used to slowly move its head to music, and let’s just say it is pretty fast now.

A closeup of David’s slipper socks, which I opted for in place of boots because he never touches the ground outside and boots are very frustrating to put on a baby.

Here are the terms I consider to be in his vocabulary, although in true baby fashion he is pretty hard to understand sometimes:

Dada
Mama
Cat
Cracker
Cheese
Uh-oh (always in a gravelly voice, thanks to my dad)
More
Get down

I think he might sometimes say “yogurt,” “Ida” or “Tom-Tom” but it’s not a sure thing. He has also said “milk” and “all done” in sign language.

Up with the sun

He walks, although perhaps not as much as he crawls, and not as confidently. But every day the walking-to-crawling ratio is changing and I’m sure pretty soon crawling will be a thing of the past, or something he does around little babies to make them feel better about themselves.

His hobbies include taking baths.

I love my shower curtain

He still nurses, four times per day and occasionally once in the night (when he is teething). He is showing less interest in breast milk these days and really loves his 4% cow’s milk. When he is teething I give him liberal amounts of infant Tylenol, because I remember how much I loved my epidural when I was having contractions.

He has six teeth, four on top and two on bottom. I thought he was working on a molar last week, because he was chewing on things in that region, drooling like a hydrophobe and crying a lot in the night. But I haven’t laid eyes on it yet, so we won’t count it.

He sleeps 11-12 hours per night and takes two naps during the day that are usually decent, which to me means longer than one hour.

If you are holding him, you can say “Lie down” and he will rest his head on your shoulder. But just for a few seconds and then he is too terribly busy again.

Yes, he is falling down.

Don’t worry, he loved it.

I don’t know.

Peekaboo!

Watching snow

I got this toy back out, and Dave was about as thrilled as the cats. It took him about five seconds to have it all figured out, and then he kept taking it apart. Which was very annoying to the animals!

Tired hipster

My aunt, uncle and parents came from California to be here on his birthday. We think they are so amazing! The rest of the pictures were taken while they were here. Uncle George and Aunt Sue came a few days before my mom and dad, and left a few days sooner.

This is just to show that once in a while I can take a pretty decent picture with a cell phone. There is my camera for proof.

Aunt Sue read to him at bedtime. He always pulls his hair when he’s tired.

Cousin Adrian’s overalls

It was nice having someone else around to get pictures of the three (five) of us. This was probably taken first thing in the morning, judging by my pajamas.

I like this one more :)

Watch out for Tom reading over your shoulder.

Goldfish in the cheek

He liked when I talked about the polar bear and growled like a crazy person in front of the other customers.

After dinner on his real birthday he had his first-ever cupcake, which was funfetti, and his hair looks terrible because he rubbed soup in it.

Asking for clarification

Shopping again, poor boy. The hat from Aunt Betsy is so soft it was allowed to stay on.

So, I bought a ball pit. At one point I freaked out a little at the prospect of having 3 one-year-olds at my house (David’s birthday party) with nothing to do other than empty the DVD cabinet. Turns out the other one-year-olds were no-shows, but the older kids got some use out of it! Dave seemed mildly interested, but not enough to justify keeping it in the living room. So it’s in the basement, and might not get much attention until next winter when I think we’ll be glad we have it. I dropped Ida in and she was terrified, but Tom went in periodically and at one point lay down among the balls.

My poor mother felt sick one day and Ida gravitated toward her vulnerability.

Tom was similarly attracted, and with their powers combined they managed to restore her to health.

This was the night before Dave’s party, and I took a picture because I wasn’t sure the balloon chandelier would survive until morning. It did though! Lazy cats.

Making pizzas. Thank you, Mom!

I did not take pictures in the middle of the party, but we did have two families from Josh’s shop and three of my friends from when I worked at the bank. Dave seemed to enjoy the hubbub and he got some fun gifts out of it. Tom slept through the entire thing on the cat tree in the living room, but Ida made the rounds.

Ida chewed through a package of airline cookies, because she is addicted to carbs. I suppose making her wear a bib falls under animal shaming.

Please notice my FIVE STRIKES.

Uncle Geo

I have been appreciating the Suburban lately.

I am stopping there because February stopped there. Perhaps one day a March blog post will show more of this lively group.

Sometimes you have to choose between using the camera flash, and giving him crazy eyes…

or not using the flash, and being content with blurry, yellow cuteness.

I made a ton of Christmas cookies, but kind of dropped the ball on decorating and distributing. But look how perfect they are!

My willing taste-tester shoves a cookie in his mouth before I can change my mind.

Dec. 21

Tom had ample opportunity to escape, but chose to stick it out. I love watching their antics.

Gotta pet him hard, so he can feeeel it.

They always let him win, wisely.

Dec. 22

Josh inadvertently brought home the best souvenir from his business trip – this mini Dasani water bottle. Dave loved it for days and days.

He attempted to use a rubber band to keep David from unloading his gaming equipment, but Ida can’t resist rubber bands.

The whole setup was a huge cat magnet, and they (Ida) broke it. Now I think there are hair ties keeping the cabinets closed.

Dec. 23

If he wakes up before I’ve drunk my coffee, he chills out in the pack ‘n’ play for a while. He is really easy-going about entertaining himself. He will peruse a board book, play with one of his shoes, shake a rattle for a while.

“My parents took me to Burger King and all I got were the Cheerios I brought in with me” is something Dave might say.

Christmas Eve

The presents were stacked on the piano with care. Sometimes I wipe food off his face with a washcloth. Sometimes I wipe it off with Picasa. ;)

Out on the lawn there arose such a clatter.

Not much snow this year.

David got to open a present from Josh’s mom, which had his first Christmas ornaments and Christmas pajamas!

“What do you mean, we don’t have a chimney?”

Christmas Day

I was letting him play with the cookie jar because it is sturdy plastic and I didn’t think he could open it. Only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line!

New books!

His British animal sounds video claims owls say “to-whit-to-woo” so that is what we say.

Oh, my gosh, open it. It took forever. What is it?

I think of this as his “oh my gosh oh my gosh” face!

Christmas?!

I like to laugh at this picture of Tom. It reminds me of an old-timey crazy person.

He had cords on for Christmas dinner but it soon became apparent that he couldn’t really move his legs.

Josh cooked, while Tom pussyfooted.

Laughing at his dad

“Yellow ring, you will be my favorite.” And it is to this day

I would like to extend our thanks to everyone who helped make our first Davy Christmas so happy. It kind of kills me that my boy couldn’t spend it with more of his family, but we are truly blessed to have our peeps even when we are remote. I hope my mom and dad know how badly I wanted to be able to celebrate with them the way we used to.

Dec. 26

Dave took a few steps to Josh, but it hasn’t become a regular thing yet. It is still occasional.

Always hold the leg. You never know.

I don’t know what was going on, but something definitely was.

Reading a new book at naptime.

TRYING to sleep.

TRYING to read.

Ida patiently explains how the baby monitor works.

Dec. 27

I just love this one.

Dec. 28

The coffee was hot. I know because the mug changes colors. ;)

Dec. 29

Ida got on the counter when we weren’t in the room. Still a bummer. :(

Dec. 30

Dec. 31

Touch and go

This is why I failed to pick up the hamper as quickly as I expected.

So I have fun with his blocks!

<3

Jan. 2

Jan. 4

Wind

Tom knows what to do on a cold day.

Jan. 5

Heating pad: another acceptable activity on a cold day

If you are serious about books, you read them IN the bookshelf.

Jan. 6

Pediatric waiting room. He was wearing slipper socks.

I think he was too distracted by this flavored tongue depressor to cry during his shot.

Jan. 8

Jan. 9

There was nothing in the yard.

He is glad to be out of the baby tub. I had to put it away because he started trying to stand up in it, but he put up with it for a long time. He LOVES the big tub.

A very clean young man

Jan. 10

Shaking his rattle

Jan. 12

“I don’t know to lift the bottle, because I am used to having a straw” is another thing David might say.

Jan. 14

I’m not sure what he loves more, bagels or the big bath tub.

Jan. 15

Josh may have been smacked.

Jan. 17

Snow on Josh’s “truck”

Jan. 20

Once in a while he’s good at lounging.

Teething. The two top ones came in around the 12th.

Hanging out in the driver’s seat

You are caught up again. Try to stay that way now; these long posts are a lot of work.